Oil drops on more signs of a struggling consumer

NEW YORK – Oil prices ran up against forecasts for warmer weather, people who won't drive or spend money and a stronger dollar.

Those factors combined for a fifth straight day of losses. Benchmark crude for February delivery slid $1.39 cents Friday to settle at $78 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price was down $4.75 for the week.

Government data raised more concerns about consumer spending power. The Labor Department reported that inflation-adjusted wages fell 1.6 percent last year, the sharpest drop since 1990. Energy costs were an additional burden, shooting up 18.2 percent last year — the biggest jump since 1979 — led by a nearly 54 percent rise gasoline costs.

PDVSA’s Supplier Debts Have ‘Vanished,’ Ramirez Says

(Bloomberg) -- Petroleos de Venezuela SA’s debts to oil-service suppliers have “vanished,” Venezuelan state oil Company President Rafael Ramirez said today.

The Caracas-based company owed oil-service suppliers, including drilling companies Schlumberger Ltd. and Helmerich & Payne Inc., as much as $5 billion in October and had debts of $7.56 billion at the end of 2008.

“The debts vanished,” Ramirez, who is also Venezuela’s oil minister, told reporters in Caracas. “We’re up to date with our service providers and in a situation of equilibrium.”

US natural gas rig count jumps 30 to 811 this week

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The number of rigs drilling for natural gas in the United States jumped 30 this week to a 10-month high of 811, according to a report on Friday by oil services firm Baker Hughes in Houston.

Natural gas under Gulf may be too much of a good thing

The prospect of yet another new frontier for U.S. natural gas development, this time in super-deep wells beneath the Gulf of Mexico's shallow waters, is not all good news for Houston's energy sector.

A big uptick in output from the emerging region — predicted this week after announcement of a major discovery there — would clearly signal new life for the heavily explored offshore region. But it could also boost already swollen U.S. gas supplies, weaken prices and keep producers on the sidelines.

Alberta minister says won't limit oil sands growth

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Alberta's new energy minister will not use legislation or regulation to control the pace of development in the Canadian province's oil sands, his spokesman said on Friday.

Earlier, in a newspaper interview, Energy Minister Ron Liepert mused about moving away from a policy that encouraged all oil sands projects to move forward. He clarified those remarks at a swearing-in ceremony, spokesman Jerry Bellikka said.

Controlling oil sands pace a risky move for Alberta

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Alberta's new energy minister would face more flak from the very oil industry he is trying to mend fences with if he tried to regulate the pace of development in the Canadian province's vast oil sands, analysts said on Friday.

Bright outlook for Petrobras

Brazilian state-run energy giant Petrobras may or may not have added to its proved reserves last year--depending on the criteria--but the company's overall outlook is still very bright.

Russia Opens Pipeline and Sets New Course

LONDON—Russia, the world's top oil producer, is set to make deep inroads into Asian energy markets at the expense of Mideast rivals thanks to a new pipeline that pumps crude from the oilfields of Siberia to a new terminal on the Pacific Ocean.

LOOP may halt tanker offloading due to rough seas

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port said on Friday it expects brief halts to tanker offloadings in the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend due to expected rough seas.

Chavez raises Venezuelan minimum wage 25 percent

CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez announced a 25-percent increase in Venezuela's minimum wage Friday to try to blunt the effects of soaring inflation, and defended his handling of an energy crisis and other domestic problems.

Goldman Takes A Stab At Gold Bugs And 'Oil-Peak'ers, Says Dollar Will Flourish

Lastly, Goldman takes on the topic of "peak" oil - in summary, the firm claims, it is not a concern. All you who believe commodities are the safe haven from fiat FRN destruction, well - you are simply naive. Goldman said so.

2010 : The future at a crossroads

5. Oil prices inch higher in 2010. As world demand increases and peak oil becomes acknowledged, oil prices hit $100 a barrel, further depressing the U.S. economy. Geopolitical tensions, particularly in the Middle East, could drive oil prices much higher if war breaks out.

China and India Push Hard Down On the Petro Keynesian Gas Pedal

Riding the tiger of rising expectations and exponentially increasing needs in the world's two biggest nations, both China and India have only one option: growth. Currently this needs, and depends on fossil energy and depleting mineral and metal resources, and applies unremitting pressure on global natural systems and the environment. As their leaders many times said in the run-up to the COP15 farce, they are however only repeating the postwar economic miracle of the OECD. When or if the OECD group cares to cut its oil, gas, steel, aluminium, grains, oilseeds, sugar and rubber consumption to present per capita levels of Chindia, sustainability would mean something - or at least commodity price explosion would be less sure and certain.

"The Long Emergency" And What it Means for Your Community

Join James Howard Kunstler at a lively event on March 6 from 4-8 p.m. at the Gelston House at 8 Main Street in East Haddam [Connecticut].

Mr. Kunstler, author of "The Long Emergency -- Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century" will discuss the implications of peak oil and the suburban predicament. He urges the reframing of expectations and the reorganization of our economic activities in the face of unfolding environmental and social calamities.

A road map for greener transport

An Oxford University study says the best way to reduce emissions in the short term is a ‘drastic downscaling of both size and weight’ of conventional petrol and diesel cars.

The research by Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment suggests that we should not rely on manufacturers producing hydrogen or battery-powered vehicles in the next decade.

...Dr Inderwildi sees electric and diesel rail systems as the way forward in bringing down transport emissions but says there are disadvantages in the resulting infrastructure costs and lack of flexibility in route planning. Even so, reducing the carbon footprint of cars and replacing domestic flights with high speed rail could still produce ‘drastic emissions savings’.

Port of Los Angeles to Work with Vision Industries to Evaluate Zero-Emission Hybrid-Electric Trucks

SAN PEDRO, Calif.--Expanding its commitment to bringing cutting-edge, zero-emission solutions to port operations, the Port of Los Angeles is entering into negotiations with Los Angeles-based Vision Industries for the purchase and evaluation of Vision’s hydrogen fuel cell hybrid-electric trucks. The heavy-duty big-rigs will be tested to evaluate their suitability for short and medium distance cargo-hauling (or “drayage”) operations, and other similar applications.

Clean Coal Jobs? Author Mines History to Dispel Myths

In his frequent performances and in his new book Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland, Biggers takes it a step further and pokes holes in the promise of clean coal jobs. Modern coal mining is so mechanized that relatively few miners are needed to extract the coal. Strip mining, which companies do whenever seams are close enough to the surface, is heavy on huge machinery and light on actual workers.

Underground, long-wall mining that is most in use now takes just a few men to run a machine that grinds away at the coal face without leaving behind the pillars which miners once skillfully carved out to hold up the roof.

Biggers also says that promises of many billions of tons of coal still in the ground are misleading, since much of this coal is too deep to be mined. He says the country is in a state of peak coal, similar to peak oil, with reserves already significantly declining. In other words, he says, massive investment in “clean coal” technology, and staking towns’ and regions’ economic futures on coal, will become moot in the not-so-distant future as coal dwindles.

Germany To Decide On Solar Subsidy Cut Next Week - Minister

SEVILLE, Spain -(Dow Jones)- The German government will decide next week on the size of a cut in state subsidies to solar power, while at the same time trying to convince its partners in the European Union to adopt a higher target for cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, German Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen said Saturday.

Power couple in Falmouth

FALMOUTH — The nearly 400-foot-tall wind turbine dedicated yesterday on a hill above the Falmouth Wastewater Treatment Facility may be a model for coupling Cape Cod's greatest energy resource with one of the region's greatest energy users.

International Power sees Ontario wind farm running by June

OTTAWA (Reuters) - International Power Canada expects to start commercial operation in June at its C$110-million ($106.8-million) Harrow wind farm in southern Ontario, the developer said on Friday.

Four 9.9-megawatt projects on the northern shore of Lake Erie will have a total installed capacity of 39.6 MW, generating enough power to serve nearly 12,000 homes annually.

Conference: Biomass needs regulatory, government support

Jim Stewart of the California Bioenergy Producers Association relayed a simple message to the 400-plus attendees of Biomass Magazine’s Pacific Northwest Biomass Conference & Expo: it’s time to begin confronting the real issues involved in developing a constructive statutory and regulatory environment for bioenergy production.

U.S. government says loans for nuclear plants complicated

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said on Friday that the process for approving federal loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants has become "complicated," but the department still expects to issue its first loan deals very soon.

"It was more complicated than I thought...these are multibillion dollar loans," Chu told reporters at a lunch briefing at Energy Department headquarters, when he was asked why it was taking so long for the department to make a decision on the loan guarantees.

Duck Hunters Triggered Pantex Lockdown, Official Says

“They had a report that there were some individuals armed and in camouflage,” in a field near the plant, said Gabe Medrano, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety. “They turned out to be duck hunters.”

Geothermal Drilling Safeguards Imposed

The United States Energy Department, concerned about earthquake risk, will impose new safeguards on geothermal energy projects that drill deep into the Earth’s crust.

The new policy is being instituted after a project in California that used the new technology was shut down by technical problems and encountered community opposition, federal documents indicate.

Paleontologist Peter Ward's "Medea hypothesis": Life is out to get you

What if the only thing life has to fear is life itself?

At a lecture Monday evening at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, paleontologist Peter D. Ward laid out the argument that life as we know it serves to make Earth less habitable—a downward spiral that might spell the eventual end of life on the planet. Ward, a professor at the University of Washington, calls this the Medea hypothesis, named for the murderous mother of Greek mythology. It is a direct challenge to scientist and futurist James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis, which asserts that life constantly tweaks the dials on Earth's control systems to keep the planet in a nice, habitable homeostasis.

Meteorologists as Climate Change Deniers?

Coleman's article, which has been widely disseminated and used by critics of global warming, reflects a curious anti-science, anti-academic position.

It's the typical populist argument that the ivory-tower eggheads are pulling a fast one on the world: "These scientists know that if they do research and results are in no way alarming, their research will gather dust on the shelf.... But if they do research that sounds alarms, they will become well known and respected and receive scholarly awards and, very importantly, more research dollars will come flooding their way.... Their like-minded PhD colleagues reviewed their work and hastened to endorse it without question."

This distrust of scientists is all the more evident when you realize that most TV meteorologists are not scientists -- and certainly not climate scientists. Few of them have graduate degrees, and only half have college degrees in atmospheric science.

'No Basis' for Excluding Climate Impacts From NEPA Reviews, CEQ Says

The White House Council on Environmental Quality has found "no basis" for excluding greenhouse gas emissions from National Environmental Policy Act reviews.

Responding to inquiries from Republican lawmakers, CEQ Chairwoman Nancy Sutley said NEPA "cannot be used to regulate greenhouse gas emissions" and that the Obama administration remains committed to energy and climate legislation to address those broader issues.

"Nonetheless, NEPA compels Federal agencies to consider environmental effects before undertaking significant actions or policies," Sutley wrote in a letter to the lawmakers late last month. "CEQ sees no basis for excluding greenhouse gas emissions from that consideration."